Tippy, Ruthie, and Jett

It's been awhile since I've done a group post.  All the dogs are doing wonderfully.  I think this is the first time I've had 3 similarly sized dogs at the same time.  That makes it easy because what works for one works for all of them (in terms of crates, food quantities, and leashes at least). 

Last weekend I took all 4 dogs for a walk...the first time I've ever tried that.  I had bought one of those multi-ended leashes (with 3 ends), so I could walk all 3 of the fosters on that and then Hardy got to walk (except it was too hot and he got tired right away, so I ended up carrying him for 75% of the walk) by himself.  I took a short video to show how that went.  Hint: it went very well.

Tippy is still my wonder-dog.  Since I posted a while ago that we were doing a test run of leaving him out with Hardy during the day, he's spent almost every day out.  The few occasions where he hasn't been out have been his decision to stay in the dog room with Ruthie and Jett.  Usually those are days where I open a new bag of treats.  But he is doing very well left out: no accidents, no destroyed furniture, no fighting with Hardy.  It's also been a couple of weeks since he got his haircut.  I just can't get over how great he looks.  We've had a few people visit, and they say he looks so handsome, and that he used to look homeless but now doesn't...my sister even wanted to take him home with her!  He's a joy to have around, and I just know that his forever family will think he's the perfect dog.

Ruthie is still a wild child.  She's getting very good at listening though.  Like I mentioned last week, she is crate trained.  She'll now go into her crate on command, no treats required (though I still give her a treat on occasion, and I always praise her when she does it to keep reinforcing that she's doing well!).  When she goes outside and I want to call her in, she will come when I call and/or whistle.  Unless of course there's a rabbit or neighbor dog within her view.  In those cases I have to go to the end of the deck and talk her in, but she's still pretty easy in that regard.  And one more exciting thing...even though I'm not specifically working with her on it, she's starting to pick up 'sit' because of all the times I've been trying to get Tippy to do it.  I wouldn't say she completely knows it yet, but she's pretty good for me not trying all that hard.  Now that she's crate trained though, I'm starting to focus more on that with her.

Ruthie obviously has no problem getting herself comfortable.

Jett is really becoming a doll.  He was so shy with me at first, but now he loves to sit by me and get petted, and occasionally he will even lay on me when I'm watching tv!  We had a little bit of a set-back with housebreaking.  I'm really not sure what happened, he was doing so well but then in the last week we had a bit of a relapse.  Saturday I made him wear a diaper (which he absolutely hated), and I think that got him back on track.  Yesterday and this morning were back to perfect.  Jett is crate trained the same as Ruthie, he doesn't require a treat to go in.  In fact, he's so good at crate training, that he is going in any crate on command, not just the one I've designated as his.  So that is great news for whichever family adopts him!

Jett and Ruthie cuddling last night.  They sure look like friends, huh!?

Jett in his diaper.  He stood there for about 10 minutes not knowing what to do.

Jett laying in Hardy's bed, which he is just slightly too big for.  :-)